1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to cryptography operations. More specifically, the present application relates to methods and apparatus for performing cryptographic operations tailored to specific processing steps.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional software and hardware designs for implementing many secure communications protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) are inefficient. One design for performing specific processing steps during a handshake phase of a secured session entails frequent communications between a CPU and a cryptography accelerator. Sending messages back and forth between a CPU and a cryptography accelerator can significantly impair system performance and complicate software development. Many inefficiencies are introduced by having to send and receive data multiple times.
A variety of techniques for performing cryptographic operations such as key generation and finished message processing have been inefficient and resource intensive. Secured sessions and cryptographic operations are described in Applied Cryptography, Bruce Schneier, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (ISBN 0471128457), NIST Federal Information Processing Standard FIPS-197 (AES), and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments Standard RFC2246 (TLS), the entireties of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods and apparatus for improving cryptographic operations with respect to some or all of the performance limitations noted above.